Friday, November 07, 2008

Survey says that most Cambodian people don't know what the MDGs are

I thought that this was only true for the US.

A survey released today by an economic think tank says that a majority of Cambodian people don't know what the Millennium Development Goals are. The survey from the Economic Institute of Cambodia says that 59 percent of the countries people have never heard of the MDGs.

"The study found that the awareness about the CMDG at the local level was remarkably low, as most respondents were either not aware of them or had only a limited understanding," the survey said.

"Fifty-nine percent of respondents had never heard of them."The survey also found that "only two percent of respondents could correctly explain the CMDG and their purpose". While awareness was low, almost all participants in the survey agreed that the program was important in guiding the development of the country, and that the media played an important role in spreading awareness about it.

EIC President Sok Hach told the Post the three-month study involved 317 people (30 percent of them women) comprising commune council officials, educators, health officials and monks from Phnom Penh and from Kandal, Kampong Cham and Battambang provinces.

Chea Chantum, director of the Planning Ministry's Social Planning Department, accepted the survey's findings but said there were problems in the study's methodology.

"The sample size was relatively small and could not fully represent a given province or the whole country, though the results seem to indicate they do represent the whole province or country," he said.